Brazil Concerned About Hotel Price Hikes at WCup

The Brazilian government is concerned that some hotels listed on FIFA’s website for the 2014 World Cup plan steep price hikes during the tournament and is reportedly considering investigating the FIFA-appointed agency in charge of accommodation.

Brazil’s tourism board has notified the justice ministry after its research showed that rates will be up to 500 percent more expensive during the World Cup in some hotels offered by the agency MATCH Services on FIFA’s website.

“It’s probable that MATCH is exercising intermediation fees that are a lot higher than usually exercised in the tourism market,” the board said in a document obtained by The Associated Press, “harming the rights of potential consumers.”

“With a small number of exceptions where MATCH Services has had to accept higher than normal rates, all other participating hotels have accepted and agreed to embrace FIFA’s and MATCH’s policy to provide reasonably acceptable rates,” it said in a statement.

The Swiss-based company is primarily responsible for contracting and delivering accommodation for the FIFA community, including its officials, delegates, guests and staff. It also sells rooms to FIFA’s commercial affiliates, the media and customers of the official hospitality program. Rooms are offered to the general public through the FIFA website operated and maintained by MATCH.

The study by the tourism board, known as Embratur, compared prices in several dozen hotels in the 12 host cities. It was conducted through researching prices announced on booking websites, the hotels’ sites and FIFA’s official web page.

Embratur did not say exactly how many hotels were compared, but of the 65 hotels listed in the study’s results 22 increased prices more than 200 percent, with six offering rates at least 300 percent higher. The biggest increase was by a hotel in the northeastern city of Salvador, which will charge $509 per night during the World Cup, a 583 percent increase compared to the $75 it charged this July.

The host cities with the smallest increase in rates are Recife and Sao Paulo, with hikes of about 100 percent on average. The capital of Brasilia had the most expensive hotel in the study, with certain rooms costing $639 per night, a 376 percent increase compared to the current price.

The study showed that the average cost for a room in Rio de Janeiro during the World Cup will be $461, more than double the rate in Johannesburg for the 2010 World Cup final in South Africa.

Embratur said it wants to negotiate better prices in part because it’s afraid that excessive rates during the World Cup may hurt Brazil’s tourism in the long run.

“Raises without limits may satisfy the profit expectations of some, but they are bad for the sustainability of the business,” Embratur president Flavio Dino said in a statement sent to the AP. “We are hosting these mega events in Brazil to help increase the flux of tourists in the country in the long run. The government will do everything possible to protect the image of the country and of the industry itself.”